Barksdale squadron commemorates deadly mission

The 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base this week remembers the unit’s sacrifice in World War II when it flew one of the war’s costliest missions in terms of crews and airplanes.

Lt. Gen. Stephen “Seve” Wilson, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, second from right, examines World War II memorabilia from one of the 20th Bomb Squadron’s deadliest missions with other fliers at a recent Barksdale air show.(Photo: Photo courtesy 307th Bomb Wing)

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Month’s end marks the 70th anniversary of the 2nd Bomb Wing’s costliest mission.

This week, Barksdale Air Force base observes the World War II flight called Mission 263.

Visiting historians and authors will talk at a ceremony today on base.

More than 100 German fighters tore through the 20th Bomb Squadron, downing all seven B-17s.

One of the lesser-known but bloodily tragic bombing missions of World War II, one that touches Barksdale Air Force Base and several of its fighting units, is being commemorated there this week.

The Aug. 29, 1944 bombing mission to attack the Privoser oil refinery at Moravska Ostrava, Czechoslovakia, and a nearby railroad marshalling yard with 1,500 railcars, was supposed to be a milk run. Instead, its fighter escort failed to show and the more than 100 fighters that did appear in the skies were all German.

The mission, the single-costliest loss for the 2nd Bomb Group – now the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale – was commemorated Thursday with a special flight of four B-52 bombers, one from each combat squadron at the base, and will continue today with a joint Hangar Fly/Roll Call on base. Special guests at the base for this occasion are Birmingham, Alabama, attorney and historian Jim Noles, and his father, retired Army Brig. Gen. James Noles. Together they authored “Mighty By Sacrifice: The Destruction of an American Bomber Squadron,” a book detailing the fatal mission.

“A couple of my captains who are self-appointed heritage officers talked to me about (the mission),” said Maytan, who has been at the helm of the 97-year-old squadron about a year. The unit fought in World War I and World War II, has experience in Korea and took part in the Cuban Missile Crisis as well as recent actions in the Middle East. “I was intrigued and thought ‘This is something we need to really grab and be proud of.’”

Thursday’s tribute flight was worked into four separate training sorties, with the aircraft rendezvousing for a 90-minute final leg that would replicate World War II conditions as much as a B-52 flight profile would allow, Maytan said.

“We (took) away their GPS to see if they could bomb in less-than-optimum conditions, to give them just a feel for what it might have been like to use a Norden bombsight on a B-17,” he said. “In our mission briefing, we put a little 1944 spin on things, and talked about some German threats they might have seen in 1944. They were going to try to get an appreciation for what the airmen did in 1944 for our country.”

“They were the tail-end Charlie squadron,” said Col. Trey Morriss, vice commander of the Air Force Reserve’s 307th Bomb Wing at Barksdale. They fell behind, and were mauled by the swarm of enemy fighters. “History tells us they lost every one the aircraft in that strike.”

Mission 263 ended with the loss of nine B-17s, all seven from the 20th Bomb Squadron and one each from the 49th and 429th bomb squadrons. Also lost was a B-24 bomber from the 454th Bomb Group that had sought refuge in the doomed formation.

The loss: 100 airmen, 40 of whom were killed (some accounts say 41) and 57 of whom were taken prisoner. Only two airmen (again, some accounts say four) evaded capture.

At least one Shreveporter was killed: Claude Alexander Petrey, 21, son of Robert and Gertie Petrey. The Byrd High graduate left behind an 18-year-old widow, Helen Marie.

“I think Petrey was only flying his fourth combat mission that day,” Jim Noles said. “He was one of the waist gunners.”

It was the greatest single-mission loss of life by the 2nd Bomb Group, according to one of the few websites that honors the mission.

Though observations of the loss by people in Czechoslovakia were not allowed during the country’s Communist rule from the end of the war through the 1980s, but after the “velvet revolution” of 1989, people of the new Czech Republic are free to commemorate Allied actions in their behalf.

Ironically, also among the 16 squadrons that took part in the mission from Foggia, Italy, were B-17s from the 96th Bomb Squadron, now at Barksdale. The 49th Bomb Squadron now is the 49th Test and Evaluation Squadron, also at Barksdale, and the 96th is 2nd Bomb Wing’s other active-duty warfighting squadron.

In November, the Air Force Reserve’s 307th Bomb Wing, co-located on Barksdale, renamed one of its B-52s “My Baby II,” in memory of one B-17 in the doomed 20th Bomb Squadron flight. Stenciled on its side were the names of the B-17’s 10 crew members. The renaming was done for visiting Brig. Gen. Jirí Verner, who was the defense attaché of the Czech Republic.

The 307th also has sent B-52s to the Czech Republic in past years on goodwill missions to air shows, but a plan to do so this year to tie in with Czech observances of the 70th anniversary of the mission had to be scrubbed.

The 307th Bomb Wing has developed a close relationship to the Czechs through three appearances, in 2010, 2011 and 2012.

“We didn’t go last year because of the sequester,” Morriss said.

The 307th Bomb Wing will present the 20th Bomb Squadron with the mementos at the Hangar Fly today, Morriss said.

Misson 263 offers lessons to fliers 70 years later, Maytan said.

“Never underestimate your enemy,” he said. “Never underestimate how difficult and chaotic warfare is. Things happen despite the best plans. We always have to be ready. We fly bombers just like these airmen did. Our job is to be ready if our nation calls us and we don’t know what they’ll call us to do.”